Public House is an exploration of alternative ideas
The Climate Crisis is a symptom
Why we want to build
Reuse: Creativity lies in the constraints
On Columns
Often we find ourselves hiding or avoiding columns in our design work. Its a shame - columns lift our dwellings and spaces up and off the ground in quite wonderful ways. More urgently, the more columns we can introduce, the fewer heavy long-spanning transfer structures we require, reducing material use and embodied carbon. The trend for developers to avoid columns to maximise “open-plan” space is a classic example of design intent detached from the realities of sustainable, material-efficient design. In most cases, the benefits of “open-plan” spaces are negligible. Columns are one of the best tools we have to distribute loads and reduce the material quantities and embodied carbon of the rest of the structure. And we’d argue that a well placed, well designed column looks good too. Here we celebrate the column: the history of this humble element; some of our favourite columns; and why we want to see more columns in the world around us.
Next came early human dwellings. Some of the earliest were rudimentary platforms to congregate around, to carry out rituals, to prepare food. The column was the tool that enabled humans to lift their architectural ambitions up and out of the ground, to create shelters in the world beyond trees and caves.
In modern-day Turkey, is a Neolithic site in Upper Mesopotamia from 9500-8000BCE. One of the oldest known megaliths with 15m high stone columns.
Centuries later, it is the column that lifts humans into the age of modernity. Mies and Gropius, Le Corbusier, the Chicago School: without the column there would be no high-rise, no streets in the sky, no lifting people above the urban fabric and up once again towards the gods above.
At what point then, did we start to decouple the column from our building history? At what point did it become a problem, a thing to be avoided or removed? We are in a new age of building design, one that must sit within our planetary limits, and work alongside nature. Building reuse, natural materials, the carbon cost of our built environment. Perhaps it is time to look again at that prehistoric column – the tree?
If the column’s original function was to provide shelter, it quickly evolved into something more. From early civilisations through to modernity, we find examples of columns lifting temples and places of worship out of the ground. They have little practical purpose beyond holding up a roof high over our heads. Columns existed to create spaces of wonder, spaces that lifted humanity beyond the basic need of shelter and survival.
The function of the column evolved beyond practical considerations, yet it also remained structurally integral to enable such spaces of wonder. And so, these columns were celebrated as decorative elements, and the form evolved – Doric, ionic, Corinthian forms and so on.
Then came Modernism - born in a time of technological as well as demographic transformation. Steel and concrete transformed the way we build, but it was the column that allowed architects such as those of the Chicago School to stack structures on top of each other in dense urban environments.
Just as the classical column form was celebrated, the modernists also embraced their column. It was like a functional equivalent of the columns holding up the great temples and cathedrals of bygone times. Regular, clean structural grids punctuated by columns. And whilst these columns are focal points that split up the space, they do not divide or segregate the space.
The most iconic column in modern architecture is perhaps Mies’ cross-column supporting the flat roof of the Barcelona Pavilion. Here it was celebrated, punctuating the space without dividing or separating it.
So why do we avoid the column? Why do we hide them? Why do we always seem to find ourselves trying to remove them and why is it missing in Rem Koolhaas’ enormous book on Elements of Architecture. Does a lack of columns really provide flexibility? Anyone who has ever visited the Barbican, the Tate Modern, danced in a warehouse or at the Roundhouse in Camden or at Glastonbury festival will know that columns (and its even more humble cousin, the pole), provide points of focus to congregate around, they are absorbing and captivating. They break up a space yet do not divide it or separate it.
Modernism marked an age of vast resource extraction and unlimited fossil-fuelled technological advancement. Architectural visions started to detach from structural realities as everything is now possible: columns disappear; buildings go up and up and up; cantilevers, basements, you name it - with enough resources it can all be done. Columns become blips in the glossy architectural renderings printed on construction hoardings.
Except of course, our planet does have limits, resources are not unlimited and we need new design approaches to build more efficiently within these planetary limits. The column is the best tool we have to distribute loads and reduce the material weight of our structures. It is an obvious fact that got lost somewhere in the hedonistic property boom of the 90’s. We should interrogate the idea that fewer columns or “open-plan” spaces provide architectural benefits. Does a column prevent colleagues from working together in an office? Or a family from chatting in the kitchen?
We propose a new age of columns. Incorporate and celebrate the structural elements that enable material efficiency. A well integrated column demonstrates an understanding of the compromises we must make to balance environmental protection with human ambition. Build more columns, enjoy them.
This article was written by Valentin Loeffler & Martin Ocampo. An edited version was originally published through AKTII: https://www.akt-uk.com/latest/the-column/